KALAMAZOO -- Ooh ... second place. So close to winning, with all the heartbreak of losing.

But Lavell Crawford doesn't feel bad taking second place in the fifth season of NBC's "Last Comic Standing." He is touring with the final five comics of the season, winner Jon Reep, Gerry Dee, Ralph Harris and Amy Schumer.

"Well, hey, it's one away, so you can't beat it," Crawford said during a phone interview the day after a similar group show at Red Bank, N.J.

Actually, you kinda can beat it. Reep won the show's largest prize, $250,000, an NBC talent contract and a Bravo special. But Crawford, who, along with the rest of the finalists, will stop by Western Michigan University's Miller Auditorium at 8 p.m. Saturday, doesn't feel like a chump.

"I tell people I got almost $10 million worth of advertising because I was on every little promo that they had from the beginning of April on down, so I can't complain," he said. "I've been doing this for 18 years, and when you get an opportunity to shine in front of maybe 8 million people across the country and parts of the world, you can't beat that. I'm not trying to sugarcoat it, it's the truth."

The network exposure has opened up Crawford's career.

"I got so many new fans. I got a lot of kid fans, I got a lot of, I guess, little old ladies that love me, too."

It's definitely a change in audience for him. In the past, he's been nasty -- "Def Comedy Jam" nasty. For the NBC show and tour, "I got rid of some of it. But I've done clean, I've done church shows, I've done it all."

Crawford has an urban style on stage, which he has showcased on "Def Comedy Jam," "Showtime at the Apollo" and "Jamie Foxx Presents: Laffapalooza."

In comparison, Last Comic winner Reep is rural. He became well-known as the "that thing got a hemi?" guy in Dodge commercials, and was Gerald Bob on Rodney Carrington's ABC sitcom "Rodney."

Putting them in competition together on stage and asking for judges' and viewers' votes for the best is like asking, "Apples and oranges, which is the greatest?"

Was there any smack talk during the competition? Any hard feelings now?